For the love of...ladders

About six months ago I went to a DIYer's heaven! It was the Junk Salvation put on by the Funky Junk Sisters. There was so much inspiration, ideas, and "junk" to buy and refurbish! What caught my eye was an old ladder in the back of this one booth. I just had to have it!

See I have been in love with the leaning bookcases and shelves I've seen at places like Crate&Barrel seen below, BUT I could not bring myself to spend $149!

So here is my leaning ladder shelf!

First, I had to separate the two sides. Depending on how the ladder is made, this may be done in various ways. Mine was a really old ladder, so it took some elbow grease and trial and error but we got it apart! I put a fresh coat of paint on and sanded the edges to give it a shabby chic look. I added some cute framed pictures and nic nacs. It is seriously a center piece in my home now! People ask and comment on it all the time. Below I have put together some other recycled ladder ideas. Happy hunting!

Easter at Deception Pass

As a Christian, Easter is the most important holiday to me! More than Valentine's Day, my Birthday, and even Christmas! This is the day that I remember the ultimate sacrifice of God, His Son Jesus. We started out the day by attending Canyon Creek Church and heard an amazing message from our Pastor Brandon Beals who answered the question, "Is the Resurrection Real?" If you have ever asked this question (I think we all have) you need to go listen to this sermon. You can do that here!

Damian and I then decided to go celebrate by enjoying what God has created at Deception Pass. If you are into history you will be interested to know that  Deception Pass was founded by a group of sailors led by Joseph Whidbe, part of the Vancouver Expedition, on June 7th 1972. They named it Deception Pass because it had misled them into thinking Whidbey Island was an island. It is absolutely gorgeous and I wanted to share with you some moments I was able to capture. I am so thankful for the life I have been given and the freedom to experience the beauty of what God has created. God loves each one of you and wants to experience a relationship with you. Easter is not about bunnies, eggs, or even food and gatherings. It is about True Love that laid down his life to reconcile the sin that lives within each one of us.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead... 1 Peter 1:3

Vintage to Modern Side Table

So begins one of my summer loves....Garage Sales!  Some of the greatest treasures are found here! Here is my first feature of a lovely garage sale find. I picked this table up for 5 bucks! I saw so much potential...do you? Well you should!

My first order of business was redoing the edging (there was a part broken off in the back). So I went to Lowes and picked up a piece of decorative molding for $8. I only needed one for the whole table. I took a hand saw and cut it down to size on a slant to fit the edges. I then nailed them in place. Because I am no carpenter, I had a few areas that had spaces on the edges so I used a product called Plastic Wood. Worked great and unless you are super anal you wouldn't notice my mistakes! 

After this I simply spray painted the entire thing with matte black spray paint. It took a couple coats to get it completely even. To add some dimension I took some metallic acrylic paint and watered it down and painted it on to the top and edge of the top part of the table just to add some dimension. Lastly, I did 3-4 coats of polyurethane clear gloss on the top to make it durable and give it a nice finish. It almost looks like glass on top! Here is my finished product! Next on my list is to refinish my chairs to the side of the table to match and recover them in a similar modern fabric. This is how you  can take an ugly vintage gold table  and turn it into chic and modern, for about $15!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!! 

Simple Infinity Scarf

My mother growing up made me tons of clothes and passed down some of her skills. I have a very basic knowledge but it is enough to get me along. When I got my first sewing machine, my mom gave me a bunch of fabrics to practice with. Some are older from the 80's or 90's which ins great because now they are back in style! So today I will show you how I came up with a simple infinity scarf!

First, I picked a fabric and folded it in half to be 22" in width and cut it to be 35" long as seen here.

Next, you will sew along the long edge with the fabric inside out to make a big tube. This is not the hole where your head will go. You are now going to sew together the two openings on either end. Gather both ends and measure to see if you like the length. If not, cut off a little at a time until it is the desire length. I found 35" to be good for me. Here is where it may get hard to explain. Turn the tube right side out so that your hem is now on the inside. Take each end of your hem and bring those together (see below).

Bring together the hems with the right side of the fabric on the inside of your enclosure. Make sure you are sewing the inside of your fabric and not the outside before you begin! Sew all the way around except for about 3 inches. This is so you can pull the inside out so your right side is exposed. Below I am showing the amount of space I left to pull the inside out.

Next pull the inside out!

Now tuck the unfinished ends in and sew the remaining 3 inches.

All done! I'm kind of in love and now want to make some in all kinds of fabric! I may take on copying the American Apparel circle scarf! This pattern would totally work for it! Now I just need to find the perfect jersey fabric! Happy Crafting!

For the love of ... Spray Paint

It's amazing how just a little paint can totally change the look and feel of something! Below I featured some things that I have done that were transformed by simply getting a new coat of color!

These are some candle sticks that needed a modern boost!

An old patio table and chairs that were weather worn and rusted, but brought back to life! For the table top I found a sale on a round table cloth and added elastic to the edge so it would fit tight and cover the table top. For the chairs I made big pillow cases out of rectangular table cloths and sewed them in. Tada!

A regular glass vase that came with some flowers turned modern and unique after spray painted with rubber bands!

Monogram Fun Day

Yesterday, my husband and I had some friends over for the day. The boys watched all the Aliens movies (lame!) while Maggie and I did some crafting! Maggie has an amazing talent for baking and decorating cakes and cupcakes! You can find some of her  Sweet Maggie May creations here. We looked on Pinterest for some inspiration and then headed to my local craft store for the supplies. We both decided on doing something monogramed for our last names!

Monogramed Letter Wreath

What you need:
Wooden letter
Jute (hemp, yarn, or twine would work fine too)
Hot glue and glue gun
Ribbon and buttons

I started this project with some left over hemp I had laying around but a when I ran out and went to the craft store to get more I cam across jute and thought it would be easier to maneuver and look better (and its cheaper - $2.99 for one roll and I didn't even use it all!) This project does take some planning out as to how to go about wrapping it. Each letter will bring it's own challenges, but with some planning it works great! Luckily hot glue comes off fairly easily so any mistake is easy to fix!

Here are some pictures of the progression. The close up shows how I did the areas where I could not wrap it around I would simply put a dab of glue and wind it back and forth to around the back where I would do the same.

For the flowers I used two types of ribbon and created loops around in a circle and glued in place when needed. I then used a button for middle. I then used the leftover ribbon and glued it in place on the back for hanging.

 Maggie's Monogramed Sign

What you will need:
Wooden letter
Frame
Spray paint or acrylic paint
Scrapbook paper
Modge Podge
Vinyl letters
Wood glue

First you will spray paint the letter and frame whatever color you want. Then trace out the letter on the scrapbook paper and Modge Podge that to the letter. (Note:  with modge podge you only need a thin layer for it to work. Too much will take a long time to dry and might not be even coated.) We then did modge podge over the whole frame before we glued the letter down to have the finish the same. We used wood glue to glue the letter to the frame, to be sure it would stay in place.

We had our vinyl letter cut at the craft store to the font, size, and color we wanted. After the vinyl letter were in place, we did another layer of Modge Podge over them again.

What a great way to spend a Saturday with good friends and crafting! Love it!

Building Blocks of Love

My wonderful husband truly does know me better than anyone! (other my maybe my mom and God of course!) For Valentine's day this year he bought me a gift certificate and these wood blocks he found at our local craft store. He saw a display of them transformed and thought they would look great on our mantle.

Here is what I used:

• Randomly sized wood blocks
• Wood stain (I used a soy based stain in Cherry)
• Vinyl letters
• pictures of me and my love
• Modge Podge (I used glossy finish) 
• fun decorating trinkets

I found this great brand for fun trinkets and decorations that could be used on all kinds of fun projects! It is Tim Holtz. Below is a picture on the product I used on the corners of some of my blocks but he has tons of fun stuff! Check him out at www.timholtz.com.

I started out by staining my blocks. I did two coats to get a rich warm color. The stain bottle said I need to but a varnish, but that was an extra $7 and you will learn quickly that I am very thrifty! I decided to test and see how mode podge would look first because I have tons of it always lying around. It ended up looking just as good! I then put my vinyl letters on. It was a little hard to get them to really stick to the wood and it took some maneuvering, but I got them on. In the end the modge podge really sealed them on. I mode podged my pictures on. I bought some fun decorations to go on to my blocks but in the end decided to keep it somewhat simple and classy and decided to just use some vintage buttons to add highlight. I sealed everything with modge podge again. Here is my finished product! I pretty much love them!